While I’m still trying to scrape Step Brother from the bottom of my shoe, the folks at the Vulture scratch their heads over the divergent career paths of John C. Reilly and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The two actors started out on similarly promising paths and they even appeared in several films together including Paul Thomas Anderson’s Hard Eight, Boogie Nights and Magnolia. On stage they were in Sam Shepard’s True West, which called for them to alternate characters from one night to the next.

In the last few years, Hoffman seems to have continued to grow. He’s got an Oscar for Capote and last year alone he delivered three outstanding and unique performances in The Savages, Charlie Wilson’s War and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Meanwhile John C. Reilly followed up Talladega Nights with Rock Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and this year he was in the above-mentioned Step Brothers.

I think Vulture is underestimating the value of comedy and I think they’re overlooking some bright spots in Reilly’s recent filmography (Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion springs to mind), but it reminded me of a 2000 episode of Charlie Rose where the two actors talked about their work on True West. Rose is his usual irritating self, but you can’t argue with the quality of guests he gets. By this time Reilly and Hoffman had both been seen in Boogie Nights and Magnolia, but I don’t know if they were exactly household names yet. Who knew one would end up with an Oscar while the other would be stuck in a rut playing man-children.

In any event, I’ve sort of had this thought as well for a while. Hoffman has truly come into his own as a great American actor, something many of us knew he was for years, and it’s an absolute joy to see him become more and more acknowledged with each film, each year.

Reilly, sadly, has been spinning his wheels in movies I’m mostly not interested in ever seeing. Ferrell is definitely a bad influence.

I love Happiness and Hoffman’s performance in it. But the film really isn’t for everyone, or perhaps I should say it really isn’t for most people.

I’m sure Reilly is making good decisions from his own point of view – he’s done too many films of late that ask so little of his craft to think that these choices are not deliberate. It’s we who miss out that he’s not sought and/or accepted more complex characters.

What I love about the Vulture piece is that they end up concluding, almost despite themselves, that Reilly might be having more fun (and money). But yeah, Hoffman definitely chose the more prestigious path.

It’s pretty sad, the route JCR has gone, because he truly is one of those actors I think is capable of anything.

In dramatic films, I find he’s always stuck in the loser husband role (Chicago, The Good Girl), and he’s got a knack for comedy which may have caused him to go for lighter roles. I wouldn’t have a problem with him doing comedy save for the fact that he doesn’t know how to pick comedic roles that suit his talents.

I know Reilly is capable of so much more range than being Will Ferrell-lite implies, but when I try to think about his career the man-child roles seem to stick out the strongest. I suppose that’s partly due to his memorable supporting roles in Hard Eight and Boogie Nights. Even Magnolia is still mostly a twist on his lovable buffoon character.

Since I’m not above plagiarizing myself in comments at multiple places. I submit this evidence:

John C. Reilly, prior to 2005:
Casualties of War
Days of Thunder
Hoffa
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
The River Wild
Boogie Nights
The Thin Red Line
For Love of the Game
Magnolia
The Perfect Storm
The Anniversary Party
The Good Girl
Chicago
Gangs of New York
The Hours
The Aviator

John C. Reilly, since 2005:
A Prairie Home Companion (actually didn’t see it)
Talladega Nights
Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (didn’t see it)
Year of the Dog (didn’t see it)
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
The Promotion (didn’t see it)
Step Brothers

It’s a fair point that we write off comedy too easily, but from what I’ve seen, Reilly’s has been the kind of comedy that deserves it.

I liked parts of the Anniversary Party, but didn’t take much away from it. Further, I can’t even remember him being in it. I also don’t recall him in Hoffa, The Hours, The Aviator, or What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.

It’s entirely possible my mind is going but I think maybe Reilly just didn’t make a strong impression in those parts. Hoffman, on the other hand, always leaves an impression on me. I’m not saying that to make a dig at Reilly, just that now that it has been brought up I’ve noticed a distinct difference in the take-away between them for me.

JCR played, certainly not for the first time, the husband of an unhappy wife (Julianne Moore) in The Hours, he played Leonardo DiCaprio’s accountant (something like that) in The Aviator, and Johnny Depp’s friend who dreams of working in fast food in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Small roles, but he’s good.

Sartre, I sat through Happiness twice. The first time I thought it was a pretty wicked comedy, but the 2nd time through (and after subsequently watching most of the rest of Solondz’s work) I began to look at is as shock for shock’s sake and I’m no longer impressed.

OK, that I’ll give you; the interrupting thing can be very, very annoying :) but you must admit he’s about the best interviewer out there today, no? He actually shows substantive knowledge about each interviewee and their craft and tends to avoid all salaciousness. That, in itself, is quite the triumph.

It’s like the Charlie Rose parody in For Your Consideration, in the montage of all the folks from Home For Purim doing press. HFP’s two writers were on a Charlie Rose-like show, and he kept asking questions, then just as they would answer, he would add MORE the question while answering it for them.

Exactly K! But Dorothy and Miranda are right. He’s smart, well prepared and he asks good questions (though he’s sometimes shaky on the follow-ups), plus there just aren’t that many interview programs where you get to spend 30 minutes to an hour with quality guests. This is why I complain but watch him anyway.

The great Lewis Black was on the other night and Charlie interrupted him mid-joke to interject his own little joke. I wanted to smack him! But then where else are you gonna see Lewis Black talking for 30 minutes?